The White Sox have played 19 games so far this season and Adam Dunn has appeared in 18 of them.  That ordinarily would not be a problem, but Dunn has managed to surpass even his own meager expectations by putting up a .101 average and an on-base percentage of .151.  Yet he continues to bat in the middle of the order, sucking the life out of a team that is having a difficult time scoring runs.

When Adam Dunn signed with the White Sox prior to the 2011 season, the expectations were that he was the missing piece that would put the White Sox offense over the top.  What has followed have been, quite possibly, the worst 2 plus years of baseball by anyone in the history of the game.  In his 10 year career prior to joining the White Sox, Dunn put up a .250 average with an OPS of .902.  In his time with the White Sox, those numbers have fallen to .179 and .681, with an amazing 426 strikeouts.  For this “production”, Dunn has pocketed $26 million dollars over the last two years, with another $30 million owed to him for the next two.

Even though the season is less than a month old, there is little reason to believe that Dunn will make any significant improvement.  In his “bounce back” season last year, he rode a decent two months and then watched as his average fell and the strikeouts piled up as the season wore on, finishing with a .204 average that only looked good next to his .159 average the year before.  If you are the White Sox, you have little chance to compete with so much money tied up in a player who isn’t producing at all.  The only question is how long they will continue to trot him out there before moving on to other options.